It's still summer for us, although most of the city is back in school now. Call me anti-social, but I really love this time of year because I can take the kids to all of our normal places but without the crazy crowds and worry that one of them is going to get lost. This summer the temperatures have been really mild, which we love, but that means there haven't been many days where water parks are a good option in the morning. But this past week has been HOT, so water sounds pretty good if it's not raining! We decided to go to the smaller splash park near our house, and the kids were excited when they saw that it wasn't crowded but that there were a couple of families there with kids their age.
This is how Ben shows his muscles. You can see the remnants of his spider bite on the upper right side of his chest. I'm so grateful for his good health! And please don't miss the Diego hand me down swim trunks from his cousin Sam, circa 2005.
I really like this splash park because it's smaller than the other one near us, and I can see the kids the entire time, even if they want to go onto the fenced playground behind it.
We had taken Kate to this park one other time, just a few weeks after we came home from China. She walked in the small puddles but didn't want to get anywhere near the spraying water. I was hoping she would have more fun this time, and at first she was still afraid. But this little froggy fountain wasn't too scary because it didn't spray up toward her face.
Hands and feet were fun.
As was splashing her big sister.
Soon enough, she went all in.
Whoa. What just happened?
She did this for quite a while. Head in, regain composure, head back in. I love Ben and Kate's faces here!
Soon she needed a break. I wrapped her in her beach towel and was pretty sure she was falling asleep with her eyes open.
Nope. Five minutes later she was back at her frog.
She got Ben in on it too.
Noah and Anna were timing themselves under this bucket, trying to be in the right place once it filled and tipped over. I can't tell you how many times Noah ran to the wrong side and missed it, or how many times it almost washed his trunks right off. Another reason low crowds are good. ;)
It was so fun watching them. I loved seeing Kate enjoy this sort of thing for the first time! You can hear her yelling at Anna and following her around, and it's because she wanted Anna to spray her in the head with the water gun. Crazy girl!
*video*
One more week of summer. While I plan to squeeze in some more fun while we can, I'm also getting super excited about all the fun Fall firsts I'll have with this girl!
This week we had another medical adventure. Yes, another! Last week we noticed a super bad smell from Kate, and we thought it was really bad breath. All of her teeth looked normal, and I scrubbed them with an electric toothbrush, but the smell remained. Nathan realized it could be her nose, and sure enough, we pulled an insane amount of tissue out of her nose. I had never seen her put anything up there, but Nathan had seen her do it once so that's how he knew to take a look up there. Once we got the tissue out, the smell was better, but it was still there a little. I wondered if it was just sort of residual (so gross, I know) but I just had to keep checking her nose with a flashlight. The next morning I was checking her, and I saw something blue and white. I knew it! There was something else in her nose but it was waaaaay up there. I tried to grab it with some blunt tweezers, but I was too afraid to go very far.
The next morning I called her pediatrician to see if they could get it out. We threw in Ben's delayed 4 year old vaccines just to make it a super fun day for everyone! The pediatrician looked in Kate's nose and couldn't see anything, but he said he's seen this scenario enough times to trust the mom when she says something is in there. Just that week he had pulled a Barbie high heel out of another kid's nose, so he sent us right on over to an ENT to see if he could find anything. Yay! Another doctor's office to explore! The bigger three kids were SO sad, because the original plan was to run to the pediatrician, have them pull this thing out of Kate's nose, and then go meet some of their favorite friends for ice cream. On the way to the ENT Anna sat in the back and cried that the day was ruined and it was all Kate's fault. Honestly, I'm surprised it took them this long to resent all of the changed plans we've had lately, but I felt for her. Enough is enough with the doctors already! But Anna said she understood that Kate was little and didn't know any better.
The ENT couldn't get it out either. In fact he couldn't even really see it, but he did say that the inside of her nose was consistent with one that had something up there for a while. He scheduled us for a nasal endoscopy (basically a sedated look in her sinuses) at the children's hospital near us for that following Wednesday morning. At this point I was second guessing myself, but I knew something wasn't right with her nose whether there was anything in there or not. Lots of people asked how we knew something was in there in the first place, and really the whole tissue incident the week before was how we found the other thing. But things have never been normal with her right nostril. In China we noticed that slight bad smell, but we figured she probably didn't get the best oral hygiene in the orphanage. Also that nostril has always been gunky and a little bloody. She would come to me with blood on her nose multiple times a day and every time I asked a doctor they would look at it and say it's probably because she isn't used to living in air conditioning and her nasal passages are just dry. That seemed odd to me after this much time with us, but I didn't know what else it could be. I even asked on a cleft lip and palate message board I'm on, and others agreed that it must just be dry air. So when the doctor suggested getting a really good look in there, I was all for it whether they found anything or not.
Kate couldn't have any food or drink after midnight before her procedure, so we let her sleep as late as we could. Luckily her appointment was for 8am, so we didn't have to wait too long. When we checked in the lady recognized us right away since we've been to that hospital 400 times in the last month, and they had this cute welcome on the TV screens:
Happy selfies before the nurse came to get us.
They took us to a room and explained all that would happen and gave us a cute little gown for her to wear. She was happy to model for us with her Elmo close at hand.
Next they came in and gave us the "happy juice" that would ease any anxiety she may have when they took her from us. It kicked in pretty fast and she was a mess. Floppy and woozy and mad and silly all at once. Mean mommy took a short video. She was mad and trying to reach my phone but she could only wave her arms slowly in that direction. Hee hee, so mean, but it's the first time we've ever had a child go under anesthesia!
*video*
The procedure was quick. The nurse called our room only about 15 minutes after they took her back and said she went under just fine, they had already checked her ears (totally normal) and he was finishing up her nose. A little bit later the ENT doctor came in and said, "Well, it was a foreign body, and it appears to have Chinese writing on it. She brought you a little souvenir!". We could only laugh. We had joked before that we would just die if whatever it was came out with Chinese characters on it, and yeah...it did. He gave it to us in a little plastic container, and one side is decorated like you see below, and the back part of it has faint printing of Chinese writing on it. And the craziest part of all is that it isn't paper. It's some sort of crinkly plastic packaging. Ouch! No wonder her nose was always bleeding a little. Poor baby. They said she probably shoved those tissues in there trying to make it feel better. Here's one of the photos they gave us. I tried to crop out the really yucky part where her nose was all gunky, but you can see the blue and white design here.
Waking up from anesthesia was not fun at all for her. She had some small breathing trouble coming out of it at first, but it resolved quickly. Once they came and got us she wouldn't open her eyes, but she screamed and hit me and pinched me as hard as she could. Poor girl was in total fight or flight mode trying to protect herself. She didn't ever calm down when we were at the hospital, but they took out her IV and said medically she was fine to leave. She screamed and kicked all the way home but once we got in the house she calmed down a little. She took one bite of yogurt and one drink of the juice the hospital had sent with her, but she was just mad. She tried to stand and fell right over, and her eyes were still pretty glossed over and out of it, so I just took her up for a nap. She was out fast and I had to wake her up at the 2 hour mark. For the rest of the evening she was floppy and had a fever of about 101, but we just gave her some medicine and cuddled her. At 6pm she was laying on me and would say yes when I asked her if she was sleepy and wanted to go night night, but we were able to at least get her through dinner. This was her waking up after dozing in her high chair. Sweet girl had such a hard day!
It was rough, but I'm glad it's done. She has to feel so much better! Her left nostril is already smaller from her cleft surgery, so it's crazy to me that her right nostril was pretty much completely blocked inside from that plastic and her nose swollen around it. Who knows how long that had been in there?! At least 2 and a half months! As a precaution we are keeping all bathroom doors closed and cabinets locked. We don't know if she will try to put anything else up there but we don't want to take any chances!
Last week we had the eye doctor, the plastic surgeon, and this. Praying these are our last visits for quite a while. The plastic surgeon plans to revise her lip next summer, and after seeing how she handled the anesthesia this time I am really happy that we have a year before we have to do that again.
So I keep saying this has been a crazy summer......and then something else happens. It's the never ending crazy summer. What else will happen in the 19 days we have left?....I really don't want to think about it. But really, even with everything that has happened I still consider this a fun summer. An adventure for sure! We've been through a lot, especially the kids, but in between emergencies we have good times and relaxed times. That said, we are really looking forward to some routine once school starts!
Before Kate came home, everyone asked Anna if she was excited to have a sister and of course she was. But we all knew that a 6 and 3/4 year age difference would mean quite a few years would have to pass before they would have much in common. Anna loves playing with Kate now, carrying her around, showing her off to her friends, and constantly squealing, "Look how cute she is, mom!". I know one day they will have that sister bond that most sisters have as young adults.
But what none of us really anticipated was the instant love between Kate and Ben. Those two are the cutest little buddies you've ever seen! They follow each other around the house constantly. Ben asks 40 times every morning if we can please go in and wake up Kate now. Now? How about now? And once she's up they're into everything you can imagine. Sure they have their rough moments. Kate likes to pinch, and Ben never retaliates. He just sits and cries until I come and talk with Kate about being gentle. Within seconds of Kate's little "Sowwy, Benji" they're back to playing and being friends again. Nathan said when Ben was in the hospital for those 3 days Kate often said, "Benji doe laa", which is her way of saying he was gone/ where did he go. She definitely noticed her buddy was missing.
It's so sweet and I love watching them play together! Ben is so kind to her (even when she isn't so kind to him!) and there is nothing cuter than watching him try to teach her something new. He does what all people do and speaks in that funny loud voice of explaining something to someone who doesn't speak English, "THIS IS CALLED A SHOVEL, KATE! YOU SCOOP SAND WITH THIS!". Hilarious, and so sweet that he's trying to help her. Every day I hear him in another room asking, "Kate can you say _____?". He has even given her some of his favorite toys and brings them to her when she's feeling sad.
This little tea party went on for a long time. He was so gentle and encouraging with her, teaching her how to drink the water without spilling and pour it from the pot. Looking at this picture makes me realize how much her hair has grown just in the last month!
Still cracks me up how big she makes him look.
Both on my lap (Kate covered in tears because someone walked up behind us to say hello and startled her). They like to sit like this quite often.
I tried to take a picture of Ben's haircut for my sister, and look who popped into the screen. This happens pretty much every time, and now she stands there saying, "Cheeeeeeeese!".
They sit by each other to eat every day and on this day they decided to clap for their mac and cheese and chicken and apples. Just because. Ben's little happy heart makes her happy just like it does all of us!
And here's their latest team effort, singing and dancing to this song Ben learned in church a few weeks ago. Kate yells at Baba in the beginning so that he will start doing the arm movements too, ha! When they heard me adding this video they both ran in and started doing the dance. Love those two so much!
When we were just in the paper work stage of Kate's adoption, we joined a group of families who were just starting up an international adoption playgroup. Since then the group has grown crazy fast. We've had a few play dates, many more moms only "play dates", and several get togethers for the whole family so the dads could hang out too. A couple of weeks ago there was a cook out, and the family hosting just happens to live right around the corner from us!
These kids can have fun together with no toys or distractions, but there were lots of fun things for them to do.
This isn't all of our families, but it was a lot! It was so fun to have this many of us together.
As we gathered everyone to take a group photo, everyone noticed that Caleb (in light blue) was holding hands with Ayla. Caleb is Kate's future husband, so this was quite the scandal! ;)
The group photo was hilarious. I'm positive this isn't all the kids, because every two seconds 3 or 4 of the kids would start to wander off and an older sibling or mom would chase them down and plop them back into the photo.
Kate and Caleb decided to go ahead and give us some photos for their future wedding slide show.
Caleb is such a sweetie and he always wants to hug Kate!
One of the moms in our group does face painting and she brought all of her supplies to the party. Are there any sisters cuter than Mabel and Wren?
Spidey Ben. Ironically, this was the day before he started to feel sick from his spider bite.
Crazy rainbow cheetah girl. She and her friend Jasmine got the same one.
No face paint for this peanut. Instead she used that time to get on the swings while everyone else waited in the line for paint. She looooves to swing, and it cracks me up how high the seat comes on her body!
Noah went for an arm dragon, which I liked. So much easier to clean later!
When we got home no one wanted to wash off their paint but there was no way I was letting them sleep in it, so I took one last photo so they could remember. Kate had nothing to show here, but she figured everyone else was holding up their arms so she probably should too.
It was a fun day, and we feel so fortunate to have found so many families like ours. We have a ton of activities for the kids and get togethers planned over the next few months and the moms and I are already booking aretreat for adoptive moms next Spring. Can NOT wait to go with these fun mamas!
